The relatively current webcam image at Manzanita Lake, Lassen...
Well, I took my first camping trip of the summer to Lassen in late June. It would be our first with 3 fully-functioning little ones. Last year our littlest was 8 months old and not mobile yet. This year she's pretty agile, so we knew it would be exhausting to keep up w/ her.
We left Eureka in the rain on the 25th and stayed along the Trinity River at the cabin. It wasn't raining there much, so heading east should be nice the next day. When we arrived the rain had stopped, but it was obvious that it had rained considerably. Still, the soil is not very permeable at Lassen and most of the water ran off instead of soaking into the ground...bummer.
During the trip we were on our feet the entire time chasing monkeys and hiking. I bought my fishing license in Redding, but I didn't get a chance to use it. Our littlest spent a lot of time falling down and collecting "ow ow's." She was fascinated by the deer, geese, and other animals in the area. She went on her first kayak ride too.
We had one pretty big bummer. We had initially reserved our site for three nights, so we would have to move on the 29th if we wanted to stay a couple of extra days...which we did. On the 29th, I woke up and noticed that the sign said that the next group was moving into that site on the first. SCORE! We wouldn't have to move! It would be available for two more nights, so I went down and paid for a couple of more days and went to the lake.
When we came back around 5:00, the sign said that someone was moving into the site on the 29th now and we would have to move. The hosts had no idea what happened....played dumb. So after playing all day we now had three tired kids and would now have to move sites. The people showed up while we were moving and didn't offer to help us or anything. We at least got our check back. Don't you love it when people play "pass the buck?" Nobody would admit anything. Anyhow it all worked out...I was pretty upset at first though.
Overall the trip was a success. The kids had a blast, but we (Mom and Dad) were ready to leave by the first. We're heading back in three weeks for another four-day trip. I think we're going to try renting a tent trailer for the first time. Here's a few pics from hiking around...
